Friday, 31 October 2014
Monday, 6 October 2014
Ringmaster Fly-a thon 2014
2014 Ringmaster Fly-a-thon results.
2589 flights, 419 Pilots. A new record.
(Edited 10-10-14. Final figures)
2013's total was 2252 flights.
John Lamont kindly sent me the following photos taken at the Knox Model Aircraft Club on Sunday.
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| The KMAC Ringmaster line-up. |
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| X-Wing Ringmaster |
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| X-Wing Ringmaster |
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| Steve Vallve |
-----o00o----
Well, I did my bit for the Ringmaster 2014 International Fly-a-thon. Completed 18 flights on Saturday but had lots of engine troubles so I went home and made a new, smaller tank, cleaned out the needle valve and recharged the batteries.
Sunday was windy - 20 knots gusting to 25. The engine would not run consistently and I found the plastic backplate on the OS .15 LA was loose and sucking air. So back home again, pulled the engine out and put some gasket goo on the backplate. The engine now ran a bit better so I removed the muffler pressure feed and then it settled down nicely for the remaining 21 flights.
Every landing was pretty hard due to the wind and finally the undercarriage fell off so I had to stop at flight 43.
I'm happy with that. Last year I did 30 flights so I beat that by 13. I used a take-off stooge for all my flights as I was flying alone with no one to act as pit crew. I think I was the only one in Tasmania to enter the Fly-a-thon. Now, it's time to go to bed for three or four days to recover.
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| These are snapshots taken from a video camera mounted on my control handle. The video didn't turn out too good. |
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| You can just make out the stooge release line in this shot. |
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| It's not obvious in these shots but the poor old Ringmaster copped a lot of buffeting from the wind. It was the roughest weather I have flown in. |
The results for the guys in Townsville are as follows:
Bob McKenzie, 19 flights
Alan Beggs, 4 flights
Doug O'Keefe, 5 flights
Ian Hague, 6 flights
for a total of 34 flights.
| I dunno! The things you see when you haven't got a gun........ |
| Bob McKenzie with his Ringmaster after his 19th flight. Damage was caused by a bouncy landing in the high wind. |
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Rocky Rally 2014
The Rocky Rally was held at Rockhampton, North Queensland on the weekend of 20-21st of September. The rally was a combined Control Line and R/C event. The weather was kind to the C/L guys on the Saturday but Sunday was a washout for the R/Cers. Jim Greenwood of Townsville took these photos of the C/L models. Some more of Jim's photos can be seen in John Lamont's October 2014 edition of Australian Model News.
| Ian Gealy's MAX BEE, F2B model, electric powered. |
| Don Keyssecker's WIND WONDER, F2B model, Stalker .61 |
| THUNDERBIRD by Reg Towell, powered by Fox .35 |
| Yatsenko YAK 55, Retro .60 by Frank Battam |
| Brian Harris's LARK with Merco .35 |
| Another couple of Brian Harris. ALL AMERICANS powered by OS .29 |
| A couple of profiles with OS Max .15's by Trevor Fenning |
| Dave Helmrich's SMOOTHIE with OS .40 power. |
| Aeroflyte AVENGER - OS .40 by Dave Helmrich |
| Dave Helmrich's PEACEMAKER. PAW 2.5cc diesel |
| Still another from Dave. A Keil Kraft PHANTOM with a 1.5cc Taipan diesel. |
| A VOODOO (?) combat wing by Mike Rankin with an AP Hornet .15 for power. |
| Mike Rankin's NOBLER powered by an OS .46 LA |
| David Georgeson Memorial Trophies. |
Sunday, 14 September 2014
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
Wednesday, 27 August 2014
Bambi
Here is my first attempt at rubber power - an Aeroflyte Bambi. Please excuse the wrinkles in the covering, I haven't used tissue since about 1965. A couple of test glides have been promising. A proper test flight will be done soon. A copy of the plan is on Hip Pocket Aeronautics, but beware, it is not the correct size. My copy came out too large. I have drawn a new CAD plan but it is not quite finished yet.
| Notice the 1/16" incidence trim packing under the leading edge. |
Monday, 18 August 2014
All Australian Day
John Lamont sent me these photos he took of Peter Koch's Aeroflyte collection.
Peter is president of the Knox MAC. Photo taken at their recent All Australian Day.
Nice collection....
| Left to right - Valiant, Avenger, Typhoon, Vulcan and Taipan Trainer. |
Here's some more photos of the Knox All Australian Day held in July.
| All Australian by Alan Mathieson-Harrison |
| Geoff Pentland Tempest Mk V by Bob Allison. |
| Gordon Burford Wombat by John Halliwell. |
| Hearn's Hobbies Cadet by Doug Grinham |
| Hearn's Hobbies Demon by Dave Lacey. |
| Hearn's Hobbies Frisky by Neil Wake. |
| Hearn's Hobbies Skylark by Bob Allison. |
| Hearn's Hobbies Super Skylark by Peter Byrne. |
| Jim Saftig Super Zilch by Robin Heirn. |
| Les Heap Cyclone by Dave Lacey. |
| Les Organ Vulcan by Dave Lacey. |
| All Australian Day line-up. |
| Knox M.A.C. field. |
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